From the gains of demonetization each person will be given 100 Rs who stood in the bank queue: Govt

New Delhi: Latest report from RBI says 15.28 lakh crore of demonetized notes came back to the system out of 15.44 lakh crore. This is a huge gain of 16000 crores which Government is planning to distribute among Indians who stood in bank queues to deposit old notes.

Finance ministry have been asked by PMO to take the lead and ensure this money is returned to the ‘deserving’ people at the earliest.

While speaking to us a finance ministry official said, “PMO asked us to make a list of people who deserve this bonanza. First, we thought we would give it back to ‘honest’ tax payers. But we do not have this list. How can we confirm who is honest and who is not in this country? The list we have is the list of people who stood in queue in front of banks to deposit the old 500 and 1000 rupees’ notes.”

“We have asked banks to collate the data and send it to RBI. RBI will help us in doing NEFT transfers to all the accounts by mid of October. It is not an easy task, but we will work together to complete it before Diwali. Government wants to claim they are giving it as Diwali bonus,” said the finance ministry official.

When we asked will you give more to people who deposited ‘more’ money, the finance ministry official said, “NO, the pain was same for all. So all will get same amount of 100 rupees flat. For some TDS will be deducted depending on which tax bracket they fall.”

We were surprised with this 100 rupees’ figure which seemed ‘less’. The finance ministry official said, “I cannot give you exact formula, remember lot of other people have also taken much more pain. Like bank employees who worked non-stop including weekends and holidays without proper lunch break, RBI officials who have blisters in their hands for non-stop counting for last eight months. They also deserve some ‘extra’ bonus.”

Nathu Lal who is still feeling the pain in his legs after eight months said, “When the money will come I will buy one Iodex and apply it.”